SEC Media Days Attendees Released, and Of Course Steve Spurrier Owns

The conference released the official list of SEC media days attendees Wednesday, and it’s pretty standard stuff. In fact, most conferences rather casually include a list on their websites or in the release distributed to credentialed media sans the fanfare, but SEC media days has rapidly evolved into a cornerstone of the league’s propaganda machine.

To wit, ESPN vis a vis SEC Network is the showcasing the event, which bloated to four days last year, both on television and streaming online. And, to that end, every fact is a treated as a big deal; including the release of attendees.

Again, it’s pretty standard. There’s no Nick Marshall situation like last summer, when the Auburn quarterback and preseason Heisman contender was cited for marijuana possession just days prior SEC media days and pulled from attendance. That said, Steve Spurrier following the lead of Kevin Sumlin last year and bringing a kicker is pretty spectacular.

Junior placekicker Elliott Fry joins linebacker Skai Moore and do-everything wide-out Pharoh Cooper as South Carolina’s representatives. What’s more, Fry is slated to represent the Gamecocks in the ESPN-produced Beyond the Field: Stories of the SEC package that will air as part of SEC media days. Each team is scheduled to showcase one player in the

While Sumlin opted not to bring any specialists this year — despite punter Drew Kaser launching his Heisman campaign at last year’s SEC media days — he is bucking tradition with a trio of linemen: center Mike Matthews, offensive tackle Germain Ifedi and defensive tackle Julien Obioha.

Though media days are opportunities for reporters to get face-time with the stars outside of their typical coverage area, I do appreciate coaches like Spurrier and Sumlin giving the spotlight to often overlooked talent. Frankly, it can often make for more interesting stories, like Kaser’s Heisman candidacy a year ago.

In the Pac-12, the last media days holdout was Arizona. Rumors circulated on social media that punter Drew Riggleman and kicker Casey Skowron could be the Wildcats’ representatives.

It wasn’t to be — wide receiver David Richards and safety Will Parks will represent Arizona at the July 30 and 31 event in Burbank, California — but if any coach in the conference was going to go the Steve Spurrier route, Rich Rodriguez would be my first guess.

Below is the complete list of SEC media days attendees, via SECSports.com. Asterisks refer to Beyond The Field representatives. SEC media days kick off Monday, July 13, in Hoover, Alabama. The four-day event starts the media day season, a huge milestone on the road to the start of a new college football season.